Women Leaving Armed Forces

“Exodus of Female Recruits Signals Trouble for Military” (Nov. 29), on women in the military, tries and fails to draw politically correct conclusions. The article suggests that women are being forced out, somehow, because the military environment discriminates against them. In reality, two major factors are at play in the differential retention rates.

First, fewer women than men enjoy the physicality of military service, with its exercise requirements, physical labor, early times and long hours and, often, lack of creature comforts. A female psychiatric nurse I know joined the Army Reserve and then quit when she found she had to pitch tents and bivouac every other month.

Second, only women--and not men--become pregnant and thus suffer the natural consequence of physical intimacy. Because the military quite properly permits pregnant women to end their tours early, this results in a category of personnel “loss” that will not ever afflict the male of the species. A not insignificant number of women become pregnant deliberately to avoid deployments, sea tours and other unpleasant duty.

We will all wait a long time before the Pentagon and Congress find a “cure” for these two factors.

LISALEE ANNE WELLS

CAPT., JAGC, USNR (Ret.)

Long Beach

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You can put women in the military, but you can’t put the military in women. And thank God for that.

URI LEDER

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